


Gone

by anythingbutplatonic



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, PTSD, Queen Family, s6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 19:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14339397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anythingbutplatonic/pseuds/anythingbutplatonic
Summary: What if, as a reaction to his dad’s own traumatic experience, William started ‘seeing’ Adrian too?





	Gone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlexiaBlackbriar13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiaBlackbriar13/gifts), [felicityollies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/felicityollies/gifts).



“ _ Aww, that was  _ real _ touching. Sweet, even.” _

William started, opening his eyes. Had he imagined it? There was no-one in his room. Dad and Felicity were in the bedroom next door, their own light since put out too. If he listened very, very carefully, he could hear the faint strains of his stepmom’s snoring through the wall, something that she voraciously denied that she did, despite both William and dad arguing to the contrary. 

Pulling the duvet up higher, he tried to close his eyes again, thinking hard about nothing, though it was difficult because so much had happened in the last couple of days and William felt as though his mind was in overdrive. Between the fight with dad that morning, his success at the science fair after Felicity had helped him fit a new tank for his cloned cabbage, finding out that someone had  _ drugged _ his dad and made him see things that weren’t there and put him in a dangerous situation where he had  _ nearly _ gotten killed - he wasn’t supposed to know about that last part, but he’d heard his dad and Felicity talking in hushed voices before he’d gone to bed - 

“ _ What’s the matter, William? Scared of the dark?” _

This time, he heard it loud and clear, and he sat bolt upright in bed, scanning the room. The kind of panic he had only felt when the school bus had been attacked a few months ago, the flames encroaching on the wheels and engine as people ran from their cars, suddenly gripped his chest; and he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“Who are you?” he whispered into the dark, his hands clenching in the blankets. 

He could reach the bedside lamp from here - if he pulled the socket from the wall, he could grab it, but the thought of him having to use it  _ against _ somebody made him feel sick to his stomach. He didn’t think he had that kind of courage. Not like dad.

A low chuckle, menacing and cold, made shivers run up William’s spine. It was a laugh he’d heard before, a dark, sinister laugh that had rang in his ears as a steel door had slammed shut, locking him in a damp, draughty room at the bottom of a small boat in a place he couldn’t pronounce the name of.

And then he saw him. 

The man with the snarling face and swords strapped to his back, a clutch of arrows in his hand, dressed all in black so that he almost, at first, didn’t notice him lounging in the corner of William’s bedroom, a half-smile on his lips.

“ _ Oh, I’m offended,”  _  he said, pushing himself off the wall and starting towards him in the darkness, a shadow with eyes like pieces of stone in the face he’d seen almost every night in his sleep since his mom died. 

“ _ Id’ve thought you’d wanted to say hello,” _ said Adrian Chase. “ _ After all, we’re old friends, aren’t we, William?” _

He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound had a chance to come out - because Adrian had clamped a gloved hand over his mouth, cutting off his breathing, his voice low in his ear.

 

“ _ Sssh,” _ he crooned, his breath hot on William’s face, “ _ We don’t want to wake mommy and daddy.” _

 

“You’re not real!” William tried to reply, but his voice was muffled by the hand over his mouth. Sweat was making his palms and forehead sticky. “You died! My dad saw you shoot yourself!”

 

“ _ Ah, well, _ ” said the ghost, “ _ about that. I guess I got lucky. _ ” That sinister laugh again. “ _ Unfortunately, not so lucky for your father.” _

 

“Go away!” William shouted against the gloved hand keeping him still. “You’re not real!”

 

“ _ Oh, sweet William _ ,” Chase mused, “ _ you really think you can get rid of me that easily? What are you, twelve? You’re just a kid. You’re no more of a threat to me than your weak, desperate father was. _ ”

 

That was enough; William wrenched himself from Adrian’s phantom grip, launching from the bed, trying to put distance between himself and the apparition. “Stop it!”

 

“ _You think you can stand up to_ me? _Me?_ _I_ ruined _your father. I let him think all his friends had forgotten him….I left him entirely_ alone _. It was so easy, too, because he was so_ stupid, _he played right into my hands! What are the odds?_ ”

 

Adrian laughed again, a deep belly laugh that split his face into a demonic smile. Then he hung his head with a sigh. “ _ It was a shame about your mother, though. She was nice. I didn’t enjoy killing her. _ ”

 

William felt like he was going to be sick. Imagines, memories of his mom flashed before his eyes, too many of them, too much, like a movie that was being played too fast. The first time she took him to baseball practice. The shiny blue bike he’d gotten for his fifth birthday. Riding with him on the rollercoaster at the Starling county fair. Smoothing down his hair when he was sick with the chicken pox and telling him that he’d be okay, that mommy was there. 

 

Tears prickled in his eyes; he blinked them back as he spat out with all the force he could muster despite his pounding heart, “You don’t get to talk about my mom.”

 

“ _ And yet, here I am,” _ Chase said, throwing his arms wide. William saw the gleam of the swords over his shoulder, catching the little light in the dim room. His face contorted into a manic grin. “ _ I always knew I’d come back for you, eventually. I’ll kill you just like I killed your mom, and your dad will be so,  _ so _ sad…” _

 

“Stop it!” William yelled - and he turned and ran, flinging his bedroom door open wide, socked feet flying across the floorboards as he sprinted as fast as he could, skidding on the kitchen tiles and heading for the front door, any door, anything that would get him away from  _ him _ .

 

“ _ You can’t run, William!” _ Chase called after him, footfalls following his own through the apartment, each squeak of the carpet and wood causing William’s heart to pound harder, his breath to come faster.

 

He didn’t think about calling for help. He didn’t think of screaming for his dad, or Felicity - because that’s what  _ he  _ wanted him to do.

 

_ He wasn’t weak. _

 

“ _ You can’t get  _ away _ from me! I am  _ unbeatable! _ ” _

 

The snick of an arrow being notched reached William’s ears; he ducked, threw himself down onto the rug by the coffee table as it whistled over the top of his head, the tears of fright coming freely now, cascading down his cheeks as he fought his own nightmares, come to life right in front of him.

 

“Leave me alone,” he sobbed.  _ Get dad _ , his head told him. 

 

_ Run away _ , said his pounding, clenching heart.

 

“ _ Never!” _ came the reply. Another arrow just missed his right hand; William jumped up and ran, towards the front door, wrenching it open, the cold night air from an open window in the hallway rushing in and freezing his exposed skin. 

 

He turned and bolted, racing down the stairs three at a time, and Adrian followed, his booming voice echoing in his head. William, just in his pyjamas and socks, ran and kept running, blindly following a route he wasn’t even aware of. 

 

Out the door of the apartment complex, down the street. 

 

Still Adrian folllowed.

 

“ _ Oh, you’re a plucky kid, you know that? You have guts, running away from your family, from  _ me _. I’ll give you credit for that.” _

 

It was cold, so cold, and he didn’t have a jacket - he vaguely thought of whether his dad and Felicity had heard him shouting, heard the door open and shut, were wondering where he’d gone in the middle of the night - 

 

“Stop!” he yelled, not daring to look behind him over his shoulder, not wanting to see the taunting, snarling face. He just kept running, not looking where he was going, his chest feeling like it was being crushed.

 

“ _ You’re useless, a pathetic kid,” _ mocked Adrian. “ _ I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree now, does it? _ ”

 

In his fear and panic, he missed a step as he turned down the next street, his vision blurry from crying, and he fell face-first, crashing to the sidewalk with enough force to make him cry out in pain; his left foot twisted, shooting a dagger of agony up his leg, and he curled instinctively around himself, clutching his ankle. He felt sticky blood on the side of his face and his palms burned from grazing the cement. 

 

The cold made him shake, and he saw Adrian standing above him, his lip curled.

 

“ _ What did I tell you?” _ he said. “ _ You’re no more of a hero than your father.” _

 

Bringing his knees up to his chest, he hid his face in the sidewalk, huge sobs coming over him like waves. 

 

He wanted dad. He wanted Felicity.

 

But they weren’t here.

 

He was alone.

  
  
  


\-----

  
  


“William!”

 

“ _ William!” _

 

“Oh, God - WILLIAM!”

 

He stirred to the sound of voices and feet, his eyes sticky with tears and his head hurting where he’d fallen. His ankle throbbed; he moaned, clutching it absently, and he heard a woman’s voice burst into a loud sob.

 

“He’s here! Oliver - he’s over here!”

 

The feet got closer; one pair flat and light, the other heavy and dull. One person in a pair of sneakers, the other in boots.

 

William opened his eyes, and recognized the shoes in front of him.

 

“ _ Dad _ ,” he croaked. “ _ Dad, dad.” _

 

And then he was there, a pair of strong arms wrapping around him and lifting him into a sitting position, the familiar smell of cologne inviting him in to bury his face in his father’s chest.

 

He let out another cry as the pain in his ankle spiked.  Behind him, he could smell his stepmother’s hairspray, and he felt her hand on his back, rubbing in soothing circles as he cried.

 

“He was here,” he sobbed. The fabric of his dad’s t-shirt was soft against his cheek. “I saw him. Adrian Chase. He followed me, that’s why I ran away.”

 

He heard Felicity gasp sharply; around him, his dad’s body stiffened. 

 

“There’s no-one here, bud,” he said, “you’re safe. He’s not here.  _ He’s not here. _ ”

 

But William couldn’t bring himself to believe his dad’s words. “It felt real.”

 

Above him, Oliver pressed his cheek to the top of his head, hugging him close. “I know, buddy. I know.” 

 

_ He did know _ , William realized.

 

“You saw him too,” he said, his voice small.. “Didn’t you? When you were on that drug?”

 

Silence. 

 

“We don’t have to talk about that now,” Felicity said quickly. “We need to get you  _ home _ , Will - you’re cold, and you have a bad sprain in your foot. You need to rest.”

 

Oliver released him, holding him at arm’s length, inspecting him. He was chalk white with worry, and he was pretty sure Felicity looked the same.

 

“Felicity’s right. We can talk about all this in the morning, and we  _ will _ talk about it,” he agreed. “You really scared us both.”

 

“I know,” William mumbled. “I’m sorry.”

 

But his dad shook his head. “You don’t have to apologize. You’re safe now, with us.”

Felicity linked arms with him, pulling him upright; she pulled one of his arms around her neck. “I’ll help you walk back.”

 

“We both will,” his dad, going to his other side and propping him up with his own weight, said. 

 

“He can’t hurt you anymore, Will,” Felicity said. “I promise.”

 

_ “He’s gone.” _


End file.
